Journal Policies
Editorial Oversight
The Journal of Portuguese Linguistic’s (JPL) associate editors are selected from among prominent researchers in the field of Portuguese Linguistics from different scientific domains. Guest editors are selected from special collection submissions to the journal. These are reviewed by the journal’s Editorial Board.
The Editor-in-Chief oversees all the editorial procedures and workflow. There is no set timeframe for the duration of the role of Editor-in-Chief.
The associate editors take specific assignments (that are assigned by the Editor-in-Chief) for individual papers or special collections submitted to the journal. Additional roles may be assumed by associate editors; for example, one associate editor acts as the Book Review Editor for the journal. There is no set timeframe for the duration of the role of Associate Editor.
Guest editors manage their special collection together with the assigned Associate Editor. The timeframe corresponds to the agreed-upon procedures leading to the publication of the special collection (see ‘Special Collections’ below for more information).
Based on the reviewer reports the editor will make a recommendation for rejection, minor or major revisions, or acceptance. Overall editorial responsibility rests with the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, who is supported by the associate editors and by an expert, international Editorial Board.
JPL cultivates a broad and experienced Editorial Board that contains members from across different nations, academic institutions, genders and demographics. Potential board members are approached by the editorial team while keeping this diversity in mind.
Peer Review Process
All submissions are initially assessed by an editor, who decides whether or not the article fits the ‘Focus and Scope’ of the journal and is suitable for peer review. Submissions considered suitable are assigned to at least two peer reviewers, either members of the journal's Editorial Board or independent experts, who assess the article for clarity, validity, and sound methodology. The review period is expected to take around four weeks but in some exceptional cases it may take longer. Reviewers are asked to provide formative feedback, even if an article is not deemed suitable for publication in the journal.
Book Reviews and Dissertation Abstracts are reviewed by the Book Review Editor.
The journal operates a double-anonymous peer review process, meaning that authors and reviewers remain anonymous for the review process. This procedure avoids potential malpractice and ensures fairness throughout the review process.
Peer reviewers are invited to evaluate a given manuscript based on their expertise and publication history on that manuscript’s topic(s). Once they accept to review a manuscript, they enter the pool of JPL reviewers and may be asked to review again in the future should their review be of a suitable standard.
JPL does not ask authors to recommend peer reviewers when they submit their articles and will not consider any peer reviewer suggestions offered by submitting authors. Guest editors of special collections are asked about potential reviewers for each article planned to be included in the special collection, as guest editors are the specialists in the research field(s) covered by the thematic issue. Guest editors are, however, strongly encouraged to propose external reviewers, meaning that reviewers cannot submit to the same special collection and they cannot belong to the same institution as the submitting authors in order to avoid potential malpractice.
Peer reviewers access the anonymised abstract prior to their acceptance. The full anonymised paper, figures, tables and other supplementary materials are only made available to reviewers upon acceptance.
Reviewers are asked to provide comment on the below topics and guidelines:
Content: Does the article fit within the scope of the journal? Is the submission original, relevant and rigorous? Is the author’s depth of understanding of the issues researched adequate? Are the sources and references adequate? Has the existing knowledge base been explored and built upon? Are the chosen methodologies appropriate and have they and the evidential base been appropriately used? Does the conclusion reflect the argument in the main body text and bring something new to the debate?
Structure and argument: Does the abstract summarise the arguments in a succinct and accurate way? Is the manuscript logically structured and do the arguments flow coherently? Is there enough reference to methodology in the introduction and are the arguments fully evidenced and substantiated? Does the introduction signpost the arguments in the logical way and does the conclusion adequately summarise them?
Figures/tables: Does the author’s use of tables, charts, figures or maps illustrate the arguments and support the evidential base? Is the quality of the formatting and presentation adequate?
Language: Is the text well written and jargon free? What is the quality of the written English used in the article and is there need for grammatical improvement?
According to its double-anonymous peer review policy, JPL does not publish peer review reports alongside articles, or the names of the peer reviewers who have undertaken review of the article. Anonymised peer review data is held securely and privately in the journal’s publishing platform for the author to access whenever they choose.
Organization and Governance
JPL is owned and managed by the Associação de Editores do Journal of Portuguese Linguistics (AEJPL), a not-for-profit scholarly association established in 2002. The society is dedicated to promoting the publication of JPL and the dissemination of the journal’s outputs. The Board of AEJPL meets, in presence or online, to present their suggestions for prospective editors (e.g., for associate editors), which are appointed as required by consensus.
The AEJPL Board also oversees the journal’s editorial structure. JPL’s Editorial Board is selected by the AEJPL; members of the Editorial Board serve until they are no longer able to (i.e., there is not a specific timeframe for this role). Once unavailable, they must communicate their intention to step down to the Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief informs the AEJPL Board, which meets, in presence or online, to present their suggestions for a replacement Editorial Board member, appointed by consensus.
This journal was formerly published by Associação de Editores do JPL/Edições Colibri until 2015, by Ubiquity Press with the support of the Open Library of Humanities (OLH)/LingOA until 2021, and is now published solely by the OLH.
Business Practices
Advertising
JPL does not permit any advertising on the journal’s website and will never consider requests of any kind from other parties wishing to advertise in the journal or on its webpages.
Direct Marketing
JPL does not engage in any direct marketing practices.
The publisher, OLH, employs a Marketing Officer who undertakes general marketing activities for the publisher including the promotion of its journals. The Marketing Officer does not, however, engage in direct marketing for any OLH journals and this does not affect the editorial decisions of OLH journals in any way.
Other Revenue
This journal is funded by OLH’s Library Partnership Subsidy model. The journal also accepts Voluntary Author Contributions (VACs) for articles. These do not affect the editorial decision making of the journal in any way.
Special Collections
Special Collections for JPL do not differ from the journal’s standard publishing cycle, with articles published on a rolling basis throughout the year. These articles also sit within their own Special Collection on a separate journal webpage.
For information on how to propose a Special Collection, please visit the journal's 'Special Collection Proposals' page.
The JPL Editorial Team evaluates the proposal’s suitability in line with JPL’s ‘Focus and Scope’ and audience. If a proposal shows promise, and only requires some very minor adjustments, the proposing editor(s) will be invited to resubmit a revised proposal. If the proposal is approved, guest editors are then invited to enroll in the submissions platform, Janeway, in order to manage the peer review process for articles intended for the Special Collection.
All stages of a Special Collection’s editorial process are overseen by an associate editor of the journal’s Editorial Team.
Preprint Policy
The journal allows authors to deposit draft versions of their paper into a suitable preprint server, on condition that the author agrees to the below:
- The author retains copyright to the preprint and developed works from it, and is permitted to submit it to the journal;
- The author declares that a preprint is available within the cover letter presented during submission. This must include a link to the location of the preprint;
- The author acknowledges that having a preprint publicly available means that the journal cannot guarantee the anonymity of the author during the review process, even if they anonymise the submitted files (see 'Peer Review Process' above);
- Should the submission be published, the authors are expected to update the information associated with the preprint version to show that a final version has been published in the journal, including the DOI linking directly to the publication.
Conduct and Expected Behaviour
JPL does not tolerate abusive behaviour or correspondence towards its staff, academic editors, authors, or reviewers. Any person engaged with the journal who resorts to abusive behaviour or correspondence will have their contribution immediately withdrawn and future engagement with the journal will be at the discretion of the journal’s Editor and/or the publisher, OLH.
Data and Reproducibility Policy
Open Data
The journal strongly encourages authors to make all data associated with their submission openly available, according to the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). This should be linked to from a Data Accessibility Statement within the submitted paper, which will be made public upon publication. If data is not being made available with the journal publication then ideally a statement from the author should be provided within the submission to explain why. Data obtained from other sources must be appropriately credited.
Structured Methods
As the traditional Materials and Methods section often includes insufficient detail for readers to wholly assess the research process, the journal encourages authors to publish detailed descriptions of their structured methods in open, online platforms such as protocols.io. By providing a step-by-step description of the methods used in the study, the chance of reproducibility and usability increases, whilst also allowing authors to build on their own works and gain additional credit and citations.
Open Code
If research includes the use of software code, statistical analysis or algorithms then we also recommend that authors upload the code into Code Ocean, where it will be hosted on an open, cloud-based computational reproducibility platform, providing researchers and developers with an easy way to share, validate and discover code published in academic journals.
For more information on how to incorporate open data, protocols.io or Code Ocean into a submission, please visit our ‘Reproducibility’ page.